Guitar speed exercises

Since this all about fast picking, we will disregard sweeps and tapping, because they are totally different techniques. This is going to be about getting our left hand flexible, and our right cooperating.

You will definitely need a metronome for this to work. The good news is that I actually recommend that you take breaks away from using one. Isn't that a relief?

The more time that you practice - the better, but let's use about an hour as an example. Most importantly you must practice at least five days a week for several months, in order to keep the progress flowing.

The first thing you will want to do with any guitar speed exercises is test it to see what your limit pace is first. You do this with a metronome. Try it at different settings. Locate a rhythm that is just below your "breaking point" (where you start missing notes and lose coordination). You will start from here.

Everyone is a little different and there are so many ways to get fast on guitar. I'm going to show you just one plan of action.

You also really need to write on a piece of paper your goals, and keep track of your progress. Now let's work with the phases.

For the first 15 minutes of the hour, you really need to work with rhythm playing only. This gets the blood flowing, loosens the right hand and gets your timing prepped.

The more interested the rhythms the better. It doesn't matter what chord/chords you use, but using several is good because it gets the chord changes in their for excellent timing practice. Here are five stages of rhythm warm up. Feel free to print all of this off.

• (down - up - down - up)


• (up - down - up - down)


• (down - down - up - repeat)


• (up - up - down - repeat)


• (down - up - up)

If you want to mix them up and attempt to go from one to another - that's excellent! This comes out to about three minutes per exercise.

Now its time to work with the fretting hand in order to get the best out of these up and coming guitar speed exercises. For this we will use Legato, because if your right hand is good but your left is not, well, then you've just got problems.

We need to work on the flexibility factor. Spend about 10 minutes working with these 3 exercises to get great results.

The one string drills should be practiced on each string, as the tension is different.

multi-finger dexterity

|---------------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------------|
|---2h3p2--2h4p2--2h5p2--2h4p2--2h3p2----|
|---------------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------------|

hammer-on chromatic

|--------------------------------------------------------------------2h3h4h5--|
|-------------------------------------------------------2h3h4h5---------------|
|------------------------------------------2h3h4h5----------------------------|
|-----------------------------2h3h4h5-----------------------------------------|
|----------------2h3h4h5------------------------------------------------------|
|---2h3h4h5-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Pull-off chromatic

|--5p4p3p2---------------------------------------------------------------------|
|---------------5p4p3p2--------------------------------------------------------|
|-----------------------------5p4p3p2------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------5p4p3p2-----------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------5p4p3p2----------------|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------5p4p3p2--|

Pinkie strength pattern

|---5h6p5--5h6p5--5h6p5--5h6p5--5h6p5-etc--|
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------|

Now you should spend some time warming up the picking hand with your choice of some of these exercises below. Using alternate picking, the idea here isn't so much to try and play them fast, just smoothly.

down - up - down - up

|--------------------------------------------------------0-0-0-0--|
|---------------------------------------------0-0-0-0-------------|
|-----------------------------------0-0-0-0-----------------------|
|------------------------0-0-0-0----------------------------------|
|-------------0-0-0-0---------------------------------------------|
|--0-0-0-0--------------------------------------------------------|

up - down - up - down

|--------------------------------------------------------0-0-0-0--|
|---------------------------------------------0-0-0-0-------------|
|-----------------------------------0-0-0-0-----------------------|
|------------------------0-0-0-0----------------------------------|
|-------------0-0-0-0---------------------------------------------|
|--0-0-0-0--------------------------------------------------------|

Now we will put the two hands together and here's how the system works. These are called step-ups and step-downs. When I was younger I had great success with this method, but there are certain other ways to train. I'll show you the first few examples so that you can see how it works, and then you can continue it after you see the formula. For this guitar speed lesson we will just work with step-ups.

Practice each one of these for a few minutes

|-------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------|
|---2-3-4--2-3-4--2-3-4--2-3-4--2-3-4-etc---|

|------------------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------------------|
|---2-3-4-5---2-3-4-5---2-3-4-5---2-3-4-5--etc--|

|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------2-------------2------------2-------------2---------|
|---2-3-4-5-----2-3-4-5----2-3-4-5----2-3-4-5----etc----|

|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------2-3-------------2-3-------------2-3-------------2-3--------|
|---2-3-4-5--------2-3-4-5-------2-3-4-5--------2-3-4-5------etc---|

|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--------------2-3-4-------------2-3-4------------2-3-4-------------2-3-4----------|
|---2-3-4-5----------2-3-4-5----------2-3-4-5----------2-3-4-5----------etc----|

|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|---------------2-3-4-5--------------2-3-4-5-------------2-3-4-5-------------|
|---2-3-4-5--------------2-3-4-5--------------2-3-4-5-------------etc-------|

Continue going up through the strings, collecting one note at a time as you go. Pay VERY close attention to your picking. That's why its important to start slow so that you can determine what's going on before developing any risky habits.